Safwah Posted January 9, 2007 Share Posted January 9, 2007 Just at work and we are trying to find out if you can import pdf files into autocad. For some reason they sent us a pdf document. We are trying to contact them but i just want to know if you can import pdf into autocad. We need to redimension some areas in the drawing. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cad64 Posted January 9, 2007 Share Posted January 9, 2007 If you're asking whether or not you can open pdf files in autocad and work on them, the answer is no. A pdf is nothing more than a printed copy on your computer. It contains no drawing information. It's just an image. If you need to make changes to the drawing, you will need to get the cad file from the person that sent you the pdf. If you just want to insert the pdf into a drawing to use as a background image, you can do that, but I would suggest doing a "Save As" in jpg format to get a better quality image. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gar Posted January 10, 2007 Share Posted January 10, 2007 If you know someone with Adobe Illustrator, you can open the pdf and export it as a dwg. I have done it a couple of times, it makes a decent dwg... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbroada Posted January 10, 2007 Share Posted January 10, 2007 there is a free converter (from AnyDwg.com I think) but the drawing comes in as line elments - pretty useless really unless you are really desperate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cymro Posted January 10, 2007 Share Posted January 10, 2007 there is this: http://www.aidecad.com/ you do get a free trial. Ideal to see if it's any use to you. I've used it a few times, works ok with lines but does'nt convert text. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkmcswain Posted January 10, 2007 Share Posted January 10, 2007 If you're asking whether or not you can open pdf files in autocad and work on them, the answer is no. A pdf is nothing more than a printed copy on your computer. It contains no drawing information. It's just an image. Not necessarily true. It depends on how the PDF was generated. PDF's can contain vector geometry and if it does, that geometry can be extracted back to a DXF or DWF file. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cad64 Posted January 10, 2007 Share Posted January 10, 2007 Not necessarily true. It depends on how the PDF was generated. PDF's can contain vector geometry and if it does, that geometry can be extracted back to a DXF or DWF file. Are you saying this can be done within Autocad? Or are you talking about using one of the 3rd party programs? I know you can convert raster to vector, but I don't really trust those conversion programs. They never seem to work correctly and you always have to spend more time fixing the generated file. I guess if you had no other alternative, but I would surely try to get the original cad file whenever possible. I guess saying that a pdf contains no drawing information is incorrect, but what I mean by drawing information is things like blocks, dynamic blocks, dimensions, hatch patterns, xrefs, etc. All of these things are reduced to simple lines during the conversion process, right? If there is a way to convert pdf to dxf, while retaining all the aspects of the original drawing, I would certainly like to know about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f700es Posted January 10, 2007 Share Posted January 10, 2007 Are you saying this can be done within Autocad? Or are you talking about using one of the 3rd party programs? I know you can convert raster to vector, but I don't really trust those conversion programs. They never seem to work correctly and you always have to spend more time fixing the generated file. I guess if you had no other alternative, but I would surely try to get the original cad file whenever possible. I think he saying that a PDF can be either Vector or Raster. It depends on how the PDF was created and what was used to create the PDF. If the PDF is a vector PDF created from a CAD file, Illustrator file, Corel Draw file or other vector program then yes it will probably be a vector PDF file. This can be used to give you a nice vector DWG file without having to use a raster to vector conversion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkmcswain Posted January 11, 2007 Share Posted January 11, 2007 I think he saying that a PDF can be either Vector or Raster. It depends on how the PDF was created and what was used to create the PDF. If the PDF is a vector PDF created from a CAD file, Illustrator file, Corel Draw file or other vector program then yes it will probably be a vector PDF file. This can be used to give you a nice vector DWG file without having to use a raster to vector conversion. That is exactly what I was saying. But CAD64 is right about a PDF not containing "drawing information" when that means "blocks", "dimensions", "hatch patterns", etc. Other than the ability to maintain layers, PDF's (and DWF's for that matter) are not much more than a plot file. We deal with a certain agency that only offers PDF files for our use. We must convert these to AutoCAD drawings so certain things can be fixed or updated. We use the PDF Import tool in ToolPac to do this and it works great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Safwah Posted January 12, 2007 Author Share Posted January 12, 2007 Thanks for the replies. I dont have to deal with this pain myself, its the steel drawing that gets the occasional plans that come in as pdf files, but since im the autocad guru in the office he comes to me asking what to do with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macareewall Posted March 11, 2009 Share Posted March 11, 2009 I am using PDFIN PDF to DWG converter from autodwg, it is a plug-in of autocad. It let me convert both vector and raster PDF to DWG. You can get a try with it to see if it is what you are asking. http://www.autodwg.com/pdf-to-dwg-converter/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f700es Posted March 11, 2009 Share Posted March 11, 2009 Correct, it will be a "dumb" drawing of just lines and such. But sometimes this is better than nothing :wink: That is exactly what I was saying. But CAD64 is right about a PDF not containing "drawing information" when that means "blocks", "dimensions", "hatch patterns", etc. Other than the ability to maintain layers, PDF's (and DWF's for that matter) are not much more than a plot file. We deal with a certain agency that only offers PDF files for our use. We must convert these to AutoCAD drawings so certain things can be fixed or updated. We use the PDF Import tool in ToolPac to do this and it works great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macareewall Posted March 12, 2009 Share Posted March 12, 2009 To import PDF into AutoCAD, you can use a product with is from AutoDWG. In all of the importers, this does a good job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EMS_0525 Posted March 13, 2009 Share Posted March 13, 2009 Autodesk just came with the patch so you can import PDFs into autocad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f700es Posted March 13, 2009 Share Posted March 13, 2009 Autodesk just came with the patch so you can import PDFs into autocad. That is on 2009 with the subscription only, correct? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkmcswain Posted March 13, 2009 Share Posted March 13, 2009 That is on 2009 with the subscription only, correct? 2009 - If you are on subscription, you can download and apply Bonus Pack 2, which includes this. 2010 - it's included by default. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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